"An accomplished Physicist from the beginning of her career until the end"[7], Maria Göeppert Mayer was a Professor of seven straight generations on her father's side. Mayer was the third woman to receive the Nobel Prize, and only one of two women to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics to date, the other being Marie Curie. The Nobel was awarded for the "discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure." She received the Nobel along with Eugene Paul Wigner and J. Hans D. Jensen ; she only received one fourth of the award, the other fourth going to Jensen and the rest to Wigner [1]. Although she only received one fourth of the award, her contributions to the model of the atomic nucleus cannot be minimized [2].She worked with other notables, such as Niels Bohrs , and was taught by Max Born(who also taught Enrico Fermi, Robert Oppenheimer , and John von Neumann ).
Insight and Influences
Mayer was born on June 28, 1906, in Kattowiz (now Poland). Mayer's earliest and most influential role model was her father, Friedrich Göeppert. He was a pediatrician, and in 1910 he was appointed to be a Professor of Pediatrics at the famous University of Göttingen. The Göeppert family move to Gottingen influenced the decisions of Mayer for most of her youth. Mayer was born to be a professor; six generations before her had been professors (on her father's side). From a very young age her father is said to have told her to not grow up to be a woman (meaning housewife). Although it was not uncommon for women to seek out a higher education, her father's advice is what then prompted her to achieve more than the ordinary woman in her era.
So because Mayer decided early on that she would achieve more than most, she left public school and enrolled in Frauenstudium, a private school for girls, to prepare for the University of Göttingen. To Mayer's disappointment, the private school closed because of financial reasons before she could finish her studies. Even though she did not finish at Frauenstudium, she decided to take the Göttingen entrance exams. She passed the tests at eighteen, and entered the university as a mathematics student.
In Göttingen she was influenced by a plethora of up and coming geniuses. David Hilbert , Hermann Weyl , and Richard Courant were all at Göttingen, and some were personal friends of the Göepperts. Somewhere along the way, Mayer's interests shifted from mathematics to theoretical physics, with the help of a seminar given by Max Born[3 ]. Mayer later commented on her shift in interests, saying, "Mathematics began to seem too much like puzzle solving. Physics is puzzle solving too, but of puzzles created by nature, not by the mind of man."
In her time, quantum physics where all the rage, and her extensive studies in mathematics allowed her to grasp the subject with more dexterity.
While working on her doctorate, her father died, leaving her mother accepting boarders in order to stay in the Göeppert home. One of the many boarders was Joseph Edward Mayer . J.E. Mayer had gone to Europe to work with James Franck . G. Mayer and J.E. Mayer married on January 19, 1930and moved to the United States, to John Hopkins University.
While at John Hopkins University, Mayer was introduced to chemical physics by her husband and Karl Herzfeld.
In the early 1930s, Mayer worked with her Max Born in Gottingen during the summers. Together they wrote Dynamische Gittertheorie der Kristalle.
In 1941 she attained her first job, teaching part time at Sarah Lawrence College. In 1942, Harold Urey offered her a job in his resaerch group "devoted to seperating U-235 from natural uranium"[3 ]
Major Contributions
Mayer worked on her thesis, and in 1930, she completed it. Her subject was double photon phenomena. Although her work was irrelevant at the time, it later gained importance with the invention of lasers and the development of non-linear optics. Mayer worked for years alongside her husband, writing papers and conducting research. She could never work alongside him for pay, because of nepotism rules at the many universities where they went. Even though her doctorate work was on photon phenomena, she received the Nobel Prize for her work on the model of the atom. She also discovered the 'magic numbers,' worked on double quantum emmission, double beta decay, magnetic susceptability on the refractive index of gasses, atomic properties of transuranic elements, and shell model interaction of energies.
The magic numbers that Mayer discovered relate to the number of neutrons present in the nucleus of a certain element. They also relate to the stability of the atom. Atoms with an even number of protons and neutrons are more stable than those with odd numbers. The ideal number of protons and neutrons are: 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126. Mayer "proposed that magic numbers should be explained in the same way as the electron shell model applies to electrons"[6 ]. She developed a theory that the nucleus consists of several shells, or orbital levels, and the distribution of protons and neutrons among these shells produces the characteristic degree of stability of each species of nucleus [5 ]
While at John Hopkins, Mayer involved herself with the structure of organic compounds with one of Herzfeld's students. She also began writing a book with her husband called Statistical Mechanics (1940). In 1939, the mayers left J. Hopkins and went to Columbia University, where she had no real title or position, but was given an office. At Columbia, she was deeply influenced by Enrico Fermi, whom she had met in Michigan upon her arrival to the U.S. With Fermi's influence and suggestion, she predicted the "qualitative chemical behavior" of the valence shell structure of transuranium elements. Also while at Columbia University, she worked "on the separation of uranium isotopes for the atomic bomb project"[5 ].
While working for Urey, she researched the "thermodynamic properties of uranium hexafluoride, and on the theory of separating isotopes by photochemical reactions". Edward Teller got her to participate in the Opacity Project at Columbia University. The Opacity Project "concerned the properties of matter and radiation at extremely high temperatures and had a bearing on the development of the thermonuclear weapon"[3 ].
Affect and Effect
With the help of Mayer's research, modern day nuclear physicists have been able to use her magic numbers to create an "isotope of silicon that contains twice as many neutrons as protons"[4 ]. Silicon-42 has 28 neutrons and 14 protons.
Mayer's work on the shell model of the atom has become the one used today.
Table of Contents
Maria Goeppert Mayer
"An accomplished Physicist from the beginning of her career until the end"[7], Maria Göeppert Mayer was a Professor of seven straight generations on her father's side. Mayer was the third woman to receive the Nobel Prize, and only one of two women to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics to date, the other being Marie Curie. The Nobel was awarded for the "discoveries concerning nuclear shell structure." She received the Nobel along with Eugene Paul Wigner and J. Hans D. Jensen ; she only received one fourth of the award, the other fourth going to Jensen and the rest to Wigner [1]. Although she only received one fourth of the award, her contributions to the model of the atomic nucleus cannot be minimized [2].She worked with other notables, such as Niels Bohrs , and was taught by Max Born(who also taught Enrico Fermi, Robert Oppenheimer , and John von Neumann ).
Insight and Influences
Mayer was born on June 28, 1906, in Kattowiz (now Poland). Mayer's earliest and most influential role model was her father, Friedrich Göeppert. He was a pediatrician, and in 1910 he was appointed to be a Professor of Pediatrics at the famous University of Göttingen. The Göeppert family move to Gottingen influenced the decisions of Mayer for most of her youth. Mayer was born to be a professor; six generations before her had been professors (on her father's side). From a very young age her father is said to have told her to not grow up to be a woman (meaning housewife). Although it was not uncommon for women to seek out a higher education, her father's advice is what then prompted her to achieve more than the ordinary woman in her era.
So because Mayer decided early on that she would achieve more than most, she left public school and enrolled in Frauenstudium, a private school for girls, to prepare for the University of Göttingen. To Mayer's disappointment, the private school closed because of financial reasons before she could finish her studies. Even though she did not finish at Frauenstudium, she decided to take the Göttingen entrance exams. She passed the tests at eighteen, and entered the university as a mathematics student.
In Göttingen she was influenced by a plethora of up and coming geniuses. David Hilbert , Hermann Weyl , and Richard Courant were all at Göttingen, and some were personal friends of the Göepperts. Somewhere along the way, Mayer's interests shifted from mathematics to theoretical physics, with the help of a seminar given by Max Born[3 ]. Mayer later commented on her shift in interests, saying, "Mathematics began to seem too much like puzzle solving. Physics is puzzle solving too, but of puzzles created by nature, not by the mind of man."
In her time, quantum physics where all the rage, and her extensive studies in mathematics allowed her to grasp the subject with more dexterity.
While working on her doctorate, her father died, leaving her mother accepting boarders in order to stay in the Göeppert home. One of the many boarders was Joseph Edward Mayer . J.E. Mayer had gone to Europe to work with James Franck . G. Mayer and J.E. Mayer married on January 19, 1930and moved to the United States, to John Hopkins University.
While at John Hopkins University, Mayer was introduced to chemical physics by her husband and Karl Herzfeld.
In the early 1930s, Mayer worked with her Max Born in Gottingen during the summers. Together they wrote Dynamische Gittertheorie der Kristalle.
In 1941 she attained her first job, teaching part time at Sarah Lawrence College. In 1942, Harold Urey offered her a job in his resaerch group "devoted to seperating U-235 from natural uranium"[3 ]
Major Contributions
Mayer worked on her thesis, and in 1930, she completed it. Her subject was double photon phenomena. Although her work was irrelevant at the time, it later gained importance with the invention of lasers and the development of non-linear optics. Mayer worked for years alongside her husband, writing papers and conducting research. She could never work alongside him for pay, because of nepotism rules at the many universities where they went. Even though her doctorate work was on photon phenomena, she received the Nobel Prize for her work on the model of the atom. She also discovered the 'magic numbers,' worked on double quantum emmission, double beta decay, magnetic susceptability on the refractive index of gasses, atomic properties of transuranic elements, and shell model interaction of energies.The magic numbers that Mayer discovered relate to the number of neutrons present in the nucleus of a certain element. They also relate to the stability of the atom. Atoms with an even number of protons and neutrons are more stable than those with odd numbers. The ideal number of protons and neutrons are: 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126. Mayer "proposed that magic numbers should be explained in the same way as the electron shell model applies to electrons"[6 ]. She developed a theory that the nucleus consists of several shells, or orbital levels, and the distribution of protons and neutrons among these shells produces the characteristic degree of stability of each species of nucleus [5 ]
While at John Hopkins, Mayer involved herself with the structure of organic compounds with one of Herzfeld's students. She also began writing a book with her husband called Statistical Mechanics (1940). In 1939, the mayers left J. Hopkins and went to Columbia University, where she had no real title or position, but was given an office. At Columbia, she was deeply influenced by Enrico Fermi, whom she had met in Michigan upon her arrival to the U.S. With Fermi's influence and suggestion, she predicted the "qualitative chemical behavior" of the valence shell structure of transuranium elements. Also while at Columbia University, she worked "on the separation of uranium isotopes for the atomic bomb project"[5 ].
While working for Urey, she researched the "thermodynamic properties of uranium hexafluoride, and on the theory of separating isotopes by photochemical reactions". Edward Teller got her to participate in the Opacity Project at Columbia University. The Opacity Project "concerned the properties of matter and radiation at extremely high temperatures and had a bearing on the development of the thermonuclear weapon"[3 ].
Affect and Effect
With the help of Mayer's research, modern day nuclear physicists have been able to use her magic numbers to create an "isotope of silicon that contains twice as many neutrons as protons"[4 ]. Silicon-42 has 28 neutrons and 14 protons.
Mayer's work on the shell model of the atom has become the one used today.
References
1. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1963/mayer-bio.html
2. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1963
3. http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~moszkows/mgm/rgsmgm4b.htm
4.http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/22492
5. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/370946/Maria-Goeppert-Mayer 6.http://www.blazelabs.com/f-p-magic.asp
7.http://cwp.library.ucla.edu/Phase2/Mayer,_Maria_Goeppert@844444444.html